Population and biodiversity insights


The raging monster upon the land is population growth. In its presence, sustainability is but a fragile theoretical construct. To say, as many do, that the difficulties of nations are not due to people but to poor ideology or land-use management is sophistic.
-- E.O. Wilson

If any fraction of the global warming can be attributed to the action of humans, then this by itself is positive proof that the world population, living as we do, has exceeded the carrying capacity of the Earth. So it is an Inconvenient Truth that any proposals to solve the global warming problem that don’t include reducing populations to sustainable levels are gross intellectual frauds. -- Albert A. Bartlett

The materials on the "core ecological issues" page point to why it is critical that we preserve biodiversity and protect the health of ecosystems. We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction event in Earth's history. This one is human-caused. To mitigate its impact we must pursue direct protection of wildlife and habitat while we address the size and growth of the human population. (See the closely related "problem of agriculture" on the "core ecological issues" page.) These links may be of help in understanding some biodiversity and population issues.